Thursday, May 2: This week in Oman has been surreal. It’s been raining some part of every day for over a week now. In the entire 19 months I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen it rain this much or for this long a period of time. Many students didn’t show up for parts of last week. They were unable to get from their villages to Nizwa because of flooding wadis.
Inside Nizwa Fort
at Nizwa Fort
Nizwa Fort
a door at the fort
closeup of the door
entering the fort
Looking down on Nizwa mosque from the fort
looking over Nizwa souq area from the Fort
inside the fort looking up at the heavy clouds
On top of the rain, we have been given a 3-day weekend this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Oman, as of May 1, is shifting its weekends from Thursday-Friday to Friday-Saturday. I understand this shift is happening in order to line up Oman’s weekends with the weekends observed by the other Gulf countries. After this weekend, we will have Friday and Saturday off each week.
an outdoor room at Nizwa Fort
the minaret of Nizwa mosque
Finally, since the weather has been hot, humid and threatening rain, since traveling is dangerous (people are often killed in Oman trying to cross flooding wadis), and since I sold my GMC Terrain and am now driving a tiny Suzuki Celerio, I cannot go out exploring wadis on this three-day weekend. On top of that, I’m trying to save every penny for my month-long trip to Spain and Portugal on my way home to the USA at the end of June. I consider going to Muscat this weekend to spend the day at a pool or the beach, but as rain clouds are still darkening the skies and money is in short supply, I decide against it.
Nizwa souq
Nizwa souq
Nizwa souq
pottery at Nizwa souq
more pottery
arches hung with pottery
the souq
So, what to do?
I decide to do some experimenting with my camera at Nizwa Fort and Souq. To reflect the dreary day that it is, I take photos with the sepia setting. Surprisingly, I find I like the atmospheric photos, which make the souq look like it’s in the middle of ancient Arabia, except for the modern-day cars.
When I arrive at the souq, I find the parking lot is slightly flooded. The air is heavy and damp, unlike Nizwa’s usually dry air. Cars are barreling through the flooded parking lot, and Omanis, Indians, Pakistanis & Bangladeshis are riding their bicycles through the water or rolling up their pants legs or pulling up their dishdashas to cross the water. I go into Nizwa Fort and climb to the top to take some photos of Nizwa mosque and the town. I walk through the souq and stop for a cold Lipton Peach-flavored iced tea.
the outside wall of Nizwa souq
a Bangladeshi tries to ride across the flooded parking lot on his bicycle
the entrance to the nut souq
the door to the nut souq
in the nut souq
Nizwa mosque
Then, when I am thoroughly drenched in sweat, I return to my air-conditioned flat, where I put on my pajamas and hunker in for the day.
Wednesday, April 24: I listed my 2008 GMC Terrain for sale on April 1, just as I planned. I was worried about the whole process because 1) I’m always a worrier and 2) I’m a foreigner in Oman and don’t know all the ins and outs of doing business here. So, as you can imagine, my stomach was tied in knots as I went through this process. All I could do was take steps that I thought would lead me to my goal and keep my fingers crossed that everything would work out as it should.
My GMC Terrain all clean and shiny
The hardest part was determining a price because Blue Book values as we know them in the United States are not applicable here in the Gulf. The price is determined solely by the market. I looked at similar 4-wheel drive vehicles with prices ranging from 4,000 rials to 5,600 rials, with higher mileage than mine. But I knew I had paid 5,550 ($14,421) for mine in November of 2011 and I’d put 60,000 km on it in 18 months. I am a good and gentle driver, but I often took the car off-road into wadis and up mountains in less than ideal driving conditions.
The Terrain on the dirt road through the Hajar Mountains, a harrowing 70 km route.
the Terrain at the bottom of Wadi Bani Auf
I had done all the proper servicing through the GMC authorized service garage, but I also knew there were some problems with the car: 1) One was the small dent on the front driver’s side of the hood, which was there when I bought it. I didn’t know the origin of that dent and so couldn’t answer potential buyers’ questions about it. 2) The tires were questionable, but my friend Tony looked at them in December and told me that the tread was good and the tires were perfectly good. Mike also looked at them when he was here in January and agreed that the tread was good and I didn’t need to replace them.
the small dent in the driver’s side hood
3) The last issue was the electrical system of the car. Before I first bought the car, I took it to Precision Auto for a computerized test. They told me a few minor problems that needed fixing, but they also said that there was some kind of electrical problem with the car. However, they couldn’t determine what it was. I could tell that in a small panel in the dashboard, the date and time didn’t work. My CD player and radio worked, but I couldn’t advance through tracks because the button didn’t work. But everything else seemed to be just fine, so I never bothered with checking it further.
the time and time electrical panel on the dashboard never worked
Mario told me the way he got a value for his used car when he sold it was to go to the Toyota dealer and pretend he was interested in buying a new car. So I took his advice and went to visit them. Of course, it didn’t help that I had originally bought my car from this same Toyota dealer, so they knew the whole history of the car. This is life in a small town in Oman.
This is where I originally bought the car in Nizwa
I told them I was looking to buy a Toyota RAV and that I wanted to know what value they would give me for a trade-in. The same guy who sold it to me asked how much I owed on the car and I told him 2,600 rials. After a couple of hours of thought, he called me back and told me he’d give me 3,000 ($7,795) on a trade-in!! I was shocked at the low value, so I called my husband Mike in Virginia and told him the situation. Being the finance guy that he is, as controller for a large government contractor, he did an extensive analysis with detailed spread sheets telling me the dealer would mark up the car about 20%, up to about 3,600 rials or more. Thus I should expect to get about 3,400 in the private market. He said I’d do well to get my loan paid off and recoup about 1/2 of my down payment of 1,400 rials. So the ideal sale value would be about 3,400 rials. Because I know everyone wants to think they’re getting a good deal, I raised my asking price to 3,700 rials ($9,614).
The Toyota dealer in Nizwa gave me a very low offer on a trade-in 😦
I started by telling my students, who immediately texted their uncles, brothers and fathers with the news. I put up an ad on Dubizzle, an online free advertising site for the Gulf. I sent an email to everyone in the Foundation Institute at the University of Nizwa, with a link to my Dubizzle ad. I put up flyers all over the university. A number of expats at the university told me my 3,700 asking price was a very good price.
And the calls started coming in.
The barrage of calls I got in the first two weeks were Omanis calling or sending text messages: “What is your last price?” I quickly got annoyed with this question about the “last price,” as I was certainly not going to tell them my last price. After all, who really knows what their “last price” is until they decide to accept that price? The last price always depends on the seller’s level of desperation — how quickly the seller wants to get rid of the vehicle. My last price in June, when I am due to leave, would certainly be lower than my last price in April, when I still have several months to go.
At first, in answer to this question, I would say, “I’m not going to tell you my last price. You can make me a reasonable offer and I’ll tell you whether I will accept it.” But I quickly found this was a waste of time. They’d make me an offer of 2,500 or 2,700 or 2,900 or 3,000 and then refuse to budge. So I finally started answering that my last price was 3,500 ($9,094). That immediately eliminated the people who were wasting my time.
The other calls and texts I received said the following: “I’ll give you 2,500 rials ($6,500) upon inspection of the car.” I got so many of these calls, I figured out that these were Omanis looking to buy the car at a low price, then mark it up and resell it. I got to the point where I cut these people off, either by not responding to their texts or telling them in the phone calls that they were way too low so there was no point in wasting time talking.
I showed the car many times at this Lulu Hypermarket
The first person I showed the car to was an Egyptian pharmacist who works in Birkat al Mouz. When he took the car (with me inside) on a test drive from the Lulu Hypermarket, he almost wrecked the car before we even got out of the parking lot. Then he drove the car at about 150 km/hour on a road where no one should be going that fast, looking at me and talking with his hands and swerving over the line. I kept having to yell at him, “Slow down! Watch out! You’re going too fast!” When we finally returned to the Lulu parking lot, happily unscathed, he said, I’ll give you 2,800 right this minute. I said no. I said 3,500. He came up to 2,900. I said 3,500. He said he wouldn’t come up anymore and I said I wouldn’t come down. So we parted ways. A week later he called and asked if I changed my mind. I said, I’m not yet desperate. Call me back in June and if I still haven’t sold it, I’ll consider your offer.
Another long line of Omanis at the university asked to test drive it. The car has always been noisy and make a kind of shimmying noise, but some of these people were commenting that the tires were not good and that was what was making the noise. I said no, I had been assured by several people that the tread on the tires was good. They said, no, in Oman, because of the heat, the tires can have good tread but they get very dry and hard. They insisted that was what the noise was. I heard this comment enough times that I started to think they might be right. I went to see a friend’s trusted mechanic who told me that yes, the tires were responsible for the noise.
On the weekend of April 11, Mario and I were on our way to Wadi Bani Kharous and we stopped in Muscat to show the car to two Omani brothers. They drove the car and made an offer to buy the car at 3,300 right then and there, AFTER they took the car to Precision Auto to have a computerized test done. By then I was getting sick of the effort of selling the car, and sick of the really low offers and it was close to my “last price” of 3,400. When they took the car to Precision Auto, the computerized test showed some problem, as it had when I first bought the car, with the electrical system. They said something about a catalytic something that senses buildup in the exhaust system and said it could present a POTENTIAL problem in the future. By this time, the two Omani brothers had been joined by their father and several other brothers to inspect the car. A whole family affair!! They asked the mechanic at Precision Auto if he could guarantee there would be no problems for 5 years. Of course the mechanic couldn’t guarantee such a thing. They tried to get me to come down further on my price and I said the car was already discounted for the unknown of this electrical problem. The deal fell through and Mario and I went on our merry way to Wadi Bani Kharous.
The next day, on our way back through Muscat, another Omani drove the car and offered me 3,200 and told me to think about it a few days. I told him I would do so, and then we returned home to Nizwa.
In the meantime, one of my colleagues had expressed interest in the car, but she needed to obtain financing. She didn’t give me a deposit, nor did I have anything in writing from her that she would buy the car. Therefore it was impossible for me to hold it for her. She and I had agreed on a price of 3,500, but I had determined that until the deal was done, I would sell it to whoever made me a reasonable offer first and could close the deal.
Finally, last Thursday, April 18, two Omani friends, Badr and Senad, came to look at the car. Senad came because Badr can’t speak English, so he came to translate. Badr had heard about the car from a student at the university who had seen my flyer. Badr, who is from Suwaiq in Al Batinah on the north coast of Oman, wanted the car for his wife. He has four children from 2 years old to 8 years old. When he drove the car, immediately he asked about the electrical panel and I said it has never worked since I bought the car. He mentioned that the tires seemed to be a problem. He asked me my “last price” and I told him someone at the university had offered me 3,500 but she was trying to get financing. However, I said, if you want to give me 3,400 today ($8,835), I will sell it to you now. Badr decided he liked the car and said he would go to the bank to get the money. We had to meet at the finance company to pay off the loan and get a release letter. I would get the difference in cash.
We had an hour to wait until the finance company opened, so I ran home and cleaned out my car while they went to Bank Muscat to get the cash. When we got to the finance company, Oman ORIX Leasing, we found that Badr could pay off my loan, but it would take a number of days to get the release letter from their Muscat head office. The police station is closed on Thursday anyway, so it was impossible to transfer the registration until after the weekend. We agreed since they had to wait to get the clear title, Badr would just pay off the loan We would draw up a bill of sale for the difference of 879 rials ($2,284), and we would meet next week at the police station to do the transfer. However, as Oman ORIX Leasing wouldn’t open again until Sunday (the bank weekends are Friday and Saturday), it would take until Monday or Tuesday to get the release letter. I had the sudden realization that the payment for the Terrain of 141 rials/month had just come out of my account and thus I had no money to rent a car, which I would need to do right away. So Badr gave me 200 rials ($520) of the 879 rials he owed me, leaving a 679 rial balance remaining ($1,764).
Oman ORIX Leasing, where I have my loan
When we walked out of the finance company, Badr opened the back car door of the Terrain and ripped off the FOR SALE sign I had taped to the inside window. “Khalas! (Finished!),” he said happily. Then I drove the Terrain and he drove his Nissan Altima to Muscat, where we met at the Clocktower Roundabout. We drove together to a used car lot where someone drew up the bill of sale for the remaining 679 rials. As we were driving, Badr again mentioned that the tires were no good. These Omanis know their cars, there is no question about that. Even though two people I trusted had told me the tires were good, they were Americans who didn’t understand what Oman’s heat can do to tires.
I handed over the keys and all the paperwork on the Terrain to Badr, keeping a copy of his ID card, the bill of sale, the receipt for the loan payoff, and the mokia (registration) for myself. I also had his phone number. We agreed to meet at the police station in Nizwa the following Wednesday morning, April 24, to do the transfer. He attends Master’s degree classes at the University on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so that seemed to be the perfect arrangement.
After all of this, he kindly dropped me off at the airport where I went directly to Budget Cars and rented a turquoise Suzuki Celerio for 150 rials/month. That is $390!! Outrageous! My car payment on the Terrain had only been $141 rials a month, and that for an all-wheel drive!
me with my Suzuki Celerio rental car
Of course the unfinished deal left me with a lot of discomfort. I thought right away that both Badr and Senad were honest and upright people. It was just a feeling I had. I would have never felt that way dealing with that Egyptian who drove my car like a maniac. I was slightly worried that Badr might never show up to pay me the remaining balance. However, I had all the documents in order and could go to the police if he didn’t show up. My bigger concern was that when we met again, he would have had the car for a week and might decide there were more things about the car he didn’t like. I was afraid when we met again, he would try to wiggle his way out of paying the whole 679 rials on the grounds that he found repairs that needed to be made.
the Suzuki Celerio I will have until I leave Oman
Then we had a water debacle at the university. On Saturday, the beginning of the work week in Oman, there was no water in the university. As you can imagine, this started creating back ups in the toilets. Disgusting, yes. On Sunday, the situation was the same. The university decided to cancel classes for the week; however the administration insisted the teachers continue to come to work. As you can imagine, this made for some very unhappy teachers. I will write about this in another post.
This situation threw a glitch in my plans to meet Badr in Nizwa because if classes were cancelled he would have no need to come to Nizwa on Wednesday. However, when I communicated through Senad, he told me that the Master’s classes were not cancelled, so Badr would still come to Nizwa. During the week, I obtained the release letter from the finance company and transferred the insurance to Badr’s name, so I was ready to go on the final deal. In Oman, unlike in America, the insurance is on the car rather than the person, so when the car is sold, the insurance goes with it. I had just renewed my insurance for 175 rials in January of 2013, so the insurance was good through January 2014.
New India Assurance Company, where I transfer the insurance to Badr
On Tuesday and Wednesday it started raining in Oman. This is tantamount to a blizzard in the USA. When it rains here, everyone is afraid to drive because of flooding wadis. Many people are killed as they try to drive through raging wadis and get washed away. Apparently, the wadis in Al Batinah, where Badr lives, were quite problematic as the rains in the north had been quite heavy on Tuesday.
As I walked into the Nizwa police station through a steady rainfall on Wednesday morning, Senad called to tell me Badr wasn’t able to make it out of Suwaiq because of flooding wadis. He wouldn’t be coming to Nizwa after all. He suggested we could wait till next week, but I wasn’t happy with that. I wanted to close this deal, get my money and be done with it. I was already feeling so much anxiety and I didn’t want to go another week feeling this way. So I suggested that if Badr could at least drive to Muscat I would meet him there. Senad called Badr and he agreed to try. We both headed on our way to the Royal Oman Police in Muscat.
In Muscat, there are four or five police buildings across from the airport and I wasn’t sure which one I was supposed to go to. I drove through several parking lots looking for the Terrain. I called Senad and asked if Badr was driving the Terrain so I could look for it. He said, no, Badr is driving his Altima because the Terrain is in the shop! Gulp! I panicked, wondering what was wrong with the Terrain. I again feared that there was some problem and he was going to try to pay me less than we agreed for the car.
When I finally met Badr at the police station I knew all my fears were in vain. The first thing he did was proudly show me pictures of the Terrain on his phone. The dent on the front hood had been repaired and repainted and the car looked like brand new!! His excitement was infectious. I said, “How much?” He said 30 rials! That was nothing. He added that he also put 4 new tires on the car. I was afraid to ask, but I did anyway: “How much?” He said 350 rials ($909)!!! I was shocked. He said he needed to make the car perfect for his wife. It was so sweet!! He was as excited as a little boy who just got some brand new toy.
He asked to see the papers. I gave him the manual, which I had accidentally removed from the glove compartment when I cleaned out the car, and showed him the release paper and the insurance document. I asked about the money and he had the 679 rials bundled up in a rubber band. I counted it in front of him. He told me he had a friend in the police so we didn’t have to take a number; we could get in right away. We sat down with the policeman and the transfer was done in two minutes. Badr showed me pictures of his children, glowing.
Badr and his Altima
What a perfect ending for my GMC Terrain. I couldn’t have sold the car to a nicer person, someone who I know will love and take care of that car like it’s a precious gem. He obviously is a caring person – to his wife, his children and his possessions. I’m so thankful that he turned out to be the next owner of my much-loved little GMC Terrain that has enabled me to explore all the terrains in Oman!!
Badr, the new happy owner of my car
Finally, after leaving Badr in Muscat, I drive the long 1 1/2 hours to Nizwa in the pouring rain. Here’s some very rare video footage of rain in Oman.
Ma’a salama (مع السلامة) ~ Goodbye in Arabic ~ to my dear traveling vehicle! I hope that my little car will give him and his family as much happiness as it gave me. 🙂
Thursday, April 4: For the second Thursday in a row, I go up to Jebel Akhdar to see the rose gardens. This time, I take my colleague Malcolm and his lovely wife Sandy, who has come from Britain to visit Malcolm for her spring break.
We go up the mountain late in the afternoon because we only want a short walk through the sprawling rose gardens in the picturesque Al Ayn, a village perched on a huge rock-spur jutting out from the escarpment. Last week, Mario and I came up here, and there were multitudes of tiny buds on the bushes. This week, more roses seem to be in bloom, but there are still millions of buds, meaning there will still be roses to see for at least several more weeks.
we start our walk through the rose villages
We walk along the trail from Al Aqr to Al Ayn, where we see below us the large escarpment where the rose bushes and fruit trees and onions are planted.
the rose gardens on the plateau
closer up to the rose gardens
Malcolm and Sandy
We walk through a grapevine trellis, with baby vines just starting to curl through the lattice. At this point, we have to make a decision. Either we have to walk along the falaj, which is quite high in some spots and requires good balance, or through a boulder-filled wadi. We decide to walk through the wadi.
grapevines on the trellis
a little pond
We come upon a little pond full of croaking and mating frogs. We stop for quite a while laughing at their mating rituals and shenanigans.
we hear frogs croaking and see all kinds of mating rituals
reflection in the frog pond
As we climb out of the wadi, I find this solitary flower, probably a weed, clinging to the rocks.
a pretty weed
Atop the plateau now, we come upon the rose bushes with their heady fragrance.
the roses
buds
rosebuds
and more rosebuds
As we walk along the falaj, we hear female voices and see some hands reaching from beneath the bushes and plucking the roses off the bushes. One of the ladies gives me a handful of blossoms.
a gift of roses from one of the rose-picking women
As we walk a bit along the falaj, we see the rose bushes in front of the mosque.
roses and the mosque
roses in full bloom
beautiful pink roses
rosebuds
Some of the pomegranate trees have buds on them now too.
pomegranate flower
And some of the clothes lines have laundry hanging out to dry.
laundry hung out to dry
We find a pretty door lined with colorful tiles.
the tiles around a door on Jebel Akhdar
And later, as we backtrack, the ladies picking the roses have collected a bundle of blossoms, which they will take to make rosewater.
collecting roses for rosewater
We decide to walk back along the falaj instead of through the wadi, and after we make it back, I see the buds on the walnut trees have grown larger over the last week.
the bud on a walnut tree
And I see this pale starry plant huddled on the ground, trying to be inconspicuous.
a pretty pale starry plant
After our walk, we sit outside at the Sahab Hotel and I break out my red wine, while Sandy and Malcolm, Brits that they are, break out the bubbly.
Sandy and Malcolm
And we watch the sun slide behind the mountains.
Sunset at the Sahab Hotel
For once it’s not freezing cold on Jebel Akhdar. We don’t even need our jackets tonight. We brought them along though, because just one week ago, it was freezing. After wine and laughs, we go inside for the buffet dinner, quite a treat. Part of this excursion is for Sandy’s birthday, coming up next week, so we make toasts all around.
my buffet dinner at the Sahab
Happy birthday to Sandy! I hope she has all she wishes for in the coming year. 🙂
Saturday, March 30: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge asks us to create a tiled gallery of A Day In My Life.
What does your day look like? Here’s your chance to share with everyone a day in your life! Here are some suggestions to get started: snap a picture once an hour and share what your day was like, walk us through a typical day for you, or even just what happened today!
Pick the best pictures which give your readers a sense of a day in your life and share them!
Since I’m 9 hours ahead of the east coast of the United States, I always get the photo challenge late on Friday afternoon. So for this challenge, I started taking photos on Friday evening. So my day is from Friday evening at 5:00 to Saturday evening at 5:00.
Friday afternoon: writing about the gift of time on my blog
I leave to go to Mario’s for a seafood, olive, veggie, tomato & olive pasta
Mario the chef
Candles and a table set for 3
Saturday morning, driving down my road, heading to work
I park my car in the university parking lot
my desk at work
my students working on exercises
My students writing their answers on the board
Me checking their exercises
Students present new vocabulary to other students
LOVE
My studenst want me to photograph them making hearts and peace signs
me in front with my students behind
in the “canteen” for lunch
Mona Lisa at the canteen
walking on the campus under covered walkways
driving home to Nizwa after shopping at Lulu
I park my car and take out the groceries
the groceries in my kitchen waiting to be unpacked
Thursday, March 28: This afternoon Mario and I venture up to Jebel Akhdar to see the roses for which the Green Mountain is famous.
first glimpse of the roses on Jebel Akhdar
In late March and April, this rugged landscape breaks out in blooms of bright pink. We love wandering through the rose bushes and breathing in the intoxicating fragrance of the delicate blossoms. Many of the roses are in full bloom, but there are still millions of tiny buds on the bushes, meaning that this is still not the peak of the season.
the rose bushes in front of the mosque in Al Aqr
God gave us memory that we might have roses in December. ~ James M. Barrie
At dawn each day, these rose gardens are apparently filled with men and women plucking the petals of full-blown roses. The harvest is collected in a sheet of cloth, gathered in a bundle and taken to one many traditional extraction units set up by villagers in these parts. The process is rudimentary: An earthen pot, sealed within a hearth, is stuffed with petals and heated for about two hours. The essence condenses into a metal container placed within the pot. The condensate is cooled and filtered several times, yielding a clear liquid (Nizwa.net: Roses of the Jabal).
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, a box where sweets compacted lie. ~ George Herbert
The end product, the famous Omani Rose Essence is used in the making of Omani halwa.Omanis also add a dash of the rose-water to a range of hot and cold beverages, and as flavoring in food dishes and sweets.
a pink, pink bud
A cupful of the essence is also believed to be good for heart. When applied to the scalp, it is believed to ease headaches as well. Its potential for use in exotic perfumes and fragrances is yet to be tapped, say local villagers.
Each bush yields about 15-20 kg of petals during the season, while it takes about 2 kg of petals to generate 750 ml of essence valued at 5 Omani rials. With the demand for Omani rose essence as strong as ever, the arithmetic works out in everyone’s favor — grower, extractor, seller and halwa-maker included (Nizwa.net: Roses of the Jabal).
sweet fragrance 🙂
We wander through the farms, taking pictures of the rose-bush terraces interspersed with terraces of green onions. The sweet scent of the roses mingles with the loamy scent of the onions. We also see buds on the pomegranate, apricot and walnut trees. As Mario grew up on a farm in El Salvador, the whole experience takes him back to his childhood, when he believes he was most happy. Although I know Mario very well, and I know he is quite a happy person now. 🙂
terraces of onions and roses
roses and onions
rose bushes on the terraces
onions galore
fields of onions
the terraces
the terraces abloom with roses and onions
Along the way, we see some other interesting things: walnut buds, a golden cat, a lizard sunning himself on a rock, some delicate wildflowers, more terraces.
the walnut trees have little buds
a little cat in the rose gardens
a lizard sunning himself near the roses
wildflowers
more terraces
And in the distance, we can see the Sahab Hotel sitting atop the mountain: our ultimate destination.
the Sahab Hotel at the top of the mountain
departing view of the rose gardens
After spending a couple of hours meandering through the villages and farms, we head to our favorite spot, the Sahab Hotel, where we drink some wine by the pool, watch the sunset, and then move inside for the always delectable buffet. After several glasses of wine, we are both telling each other how much we will miss each other when I leave Oman at the end of June.
another beautiful sunset on Jebel Akhdar
While we are enjoying our buffet, an Irish girl comes up to our table and asks if I write a blog. Surprised, I say, yes, I do. She tells me she has been reading my blog and it helped her plan her trip to Oman from Ireland. She introduces herself as Sarah and then introduces us to her husband; I introduce them both to Mario. I say, “You would recognize Mario if you’ve been reading my blog!” When I ask about their travel plans, she says she is planning to stay 3 nights on Jebel Akhdar and 3 nights in Muscat.
the fabulous Sahab Hotel
When I first see her, I think she has red hair, but it’s not a bright red and in the light I can’t tell for sure. I say, “Is your hair red? It’s hard to tell in this light.” She says, “Yes, it’s more of a ginger really.” I say, “I have a daughter named Sarah and she has red hair too. It’s wavy just like yours.”
This little encounter really makes my day. Mario and I both marvel that someone who traveled all the way from Ireland recognizes me from my blog. Isn’t it a happy coincidence that I happen to be up at the Sahab on this particular night, when she is here? What a treat.
After they finish their dinner, they take off and I wish them a good time in Oman. After they are gone, Mario says, “You know, they had a bottle of wine with them. That shows they really read your blog because otherwise how would they have known they could bring a bottle of wine?” That’s so funny, but so true. Because the Sahab doesn’t serve wine but does allow you to bring your own bottle and I’ve written about this in my blog.
pink clouds to go with the roses
The sad thing is that often I don’t think about certain things until it’s too late. After they’re gone, it dawns on me that I should have taken their picture. And Mario says, “It would have been great if I had taken a picture of you with them.” Sometimes I can’t believe how I don’t think of these things until it’s too late. I’m supposed to be a photographer, after all!!
I hope if Sarah reads this post, she will contact me on my About Me page and send me a picture of their time in Oman, so I can add it to this post! 🙂
Saturday, April 6: Today Sarah from Ireland contacted me and sent a few pictures of herself and her husband Andrew on Jebel Akhdar. I was happy to hear she enjoyed her time in Oman. She wrote of her time on Jebel Akhdar: “We really enjoyed our visit to that area, such a fascinating place and spectacular scenery. I think I liked Wadi Bani Habib best as it really gave you an insight into how people lived in the villages.”
Here are two pictures she sent of her and Andrew on the Green Mountain.
Sarah and Andrew at Jebel Akhdar
Andrew and Sarah from Ireland at Jebel Akhdar
Sarah also wrote of our encounter: “I did think we might meet you in Oman, as I knew that you liked to visit Jebel Akhdar so it was serendipitous that we did meet. I hope that you continue to blog about your travels, wherever they take you as it is lovely to read about these places, even if I don’t get to visit them all myself.”
Thursday, March 21: This morning, I call Mario at 7 a.m. “Are you up?” Of course, I know he is up. We share the annoying problem of waking up in the wee morning hours, no matter how late we have stayed up the night before.
heading out of Misfat al Abriyyin on the W9 trail
All day yesterday, we kept going around in circles trying to figure out a place we could go for a walk this weekend. I personally am sick of the same old places, and I didn’t want to do something I have done 4-5 times already. Neither did we want to drive a long distance. This morning, when I get him on the phone, he says, “What about the upper path from Misfat Al Abriyyin? We haven’t done that yet.”
grasses and a fallen date palm
We actually had this on our list of things to do before I leave Oman, but we had considered staying overnight at the B&B in Misfat and then getting a dawn start. However, there is really no need to spend the night, as we live only 45 minutes away. We agree to go and head off to Misfat.
sunlight glows through the palms
Instead of heading down into the gardens and banana plantations of Misfat, which is where I always go, we head uphill on a steep village street and then down some steps toward a large falaj that leads out of the village and into a gorge.
the large falaj leading out of the village
one of many goats we encounter along the old donkey trail
Date palms and banana trees shade us until we get out of the village, where we find ourselves at the edge of a canyon open to the sun. At least there is a lovely breeze this morning.
the ancient donkey trail (W9)
We encounter goats everywhere. We also see lots of big lizards today, but most of them are too fast to capture by camera. After walking on a good trail interspersed with stone steps along the edge of the canyon, the path descends into the wadi and then up the other side, where it eventually meets up with the W8 and the W10 paths.
looking down into some farms in the wadi
views along the ancient donkey path
heading down into the wadi
another little goat friend we meet along the way
into the wadi
We have no plan to go that far today. We just want a short walk, so we stop at a shady spot in the wadi after about an hour. A small slick-looking lizard and some wandering goats join us as we take a break.
a little companionable lizard
more goat friends
We get a kick out of some silly goats that are climbing trees and eating flowers off the uppermost branches.
a goat up in a tree nibbling furiously on flowers in the upper branches
another view of the tree-climbing goat
a silly goat in another tree
nibbling tree-climbing goat
Finally, we backtrack to Misfat al Abriyyin, where we meet on the trail some normal-looking ex-pats who work at a college in Muscat. We are both surprised to find these unusual specimens in this part of our world.
glowing bush
On our way back along the falaj, Mario spots a male frog squeezing the eggs out of his female counterpart in the water of the falaj.
frogs working together to lay eggs. That’s teamwork!
returning to the village of Misfat Al Abriyyin
We end up having a lunch topped off with fresh banana juice and orange juice at a little “restaurant and coffee shop” in Al Hamra. We are done a little after noon and on our way back to Nizwa. 🙂
Click here to see my other posts on the lower half of Misfat Al Abriyyin.
Thursday, March 7: It’s starting to get hot already in Oman, with an expected high today of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit). Because of this, Mario and I decide to get an early start to hike from Wadi Ghul to the rim of An Nakhur Gorge on Jebel Shams. He meets me at my flat at 7:30 and we’re on our way to tackle a section of Oman’s highest mountain.
old Ghul village clings to an orange hillside
We stop first for pictures at old Ghul village, a cluster of ruined mudbrick homes clinging to a rocky hill on the far side of the wadi, with a pretty patchwork of farm fields and date plantations in the foreground. The mudbrick homes blend in with, and even disintegrate into, the orange rocks of the hillside. Along the far left of the village, a huge stone wall meanders all the way to the top of the first ridge.
terraces of date palms inside Wadi An Nakhur
The name ghul, means literally, “ghoul,” — a devilish kind of jinn. It’s unclear why the village is thus named, although it may have something to do with the supernatural behavior of the nearby jinns of Bahla (Rough Guide to Oman).
the precipitous walls of An Nakhur Gorge
We drive into An Nakhur Gorge where we see a brown rectangular sign mentioning Parking and the W6a trekking trail. We follow that sign, looking for another sign and anything that looks like a parking lot. We don’t see anything, and as we drive further and further into An Nakhur Gorge, with its steep cliffs looming on either side of us, we realize there is no way the top of the gorge is accessible from here. The road, which is just a dirt track, is very bumpy and rough and we must take it slow and easy to avoid damaging my trusty GMC Terrain.
Looking up toward the ridge of An Nakhur Gorge
About 3 km into the gorge, we see a strange-looking black thing sitting atop a boulder. It looks surreal. Mario says, “Is that a head? It looks like the head of an animal, maybe a goat.” We both look closely as we drive by and certainly, it is very bizarre, but we can’t make out quite what it is. We can see eyes, and some facial features, but it almost looks as if someone skinned an animal head and put the skin over a rock. After passing this disturbing head that looks to me like a warning sign (Keep out!), we see a large splotch of blood in the wadi and a blood-drenched hide stretched out in the sun to dry. I have to say I’m quite disturbed by this sight, even though I know Omanis butcher goats and cows all the time, as a matter of course, especially during the Eid holidays. Uneasy, I say to Mario, “Should we continue?” He says yes, and reminds me that Omanis regularly butcher animals for food. Still. I find it very unsettling.
golden grasses and terraces of date palms
We drive through a little village, where four dirt-covered children jump out from nowhere and start knocking on our windows. They keep saying what I think is “Eid Mubarak!” but it’s not Eid now and Mario says they want money. I make the mistake of giving them one rial, and when I do all the others start crying. “Me! Me! Me!!” I dig out a couple of baisas, but still there is not enough for the 4th child and a crying fit ensues. Annoyed by now at all this drama, we roll up our windows and continue driving down the gorge.
dripping rock with a tiny oasis of green
We drive on to the end of the gorge for 7 km until we come to a dead-end blocked by huge boulders. Near the end we come across a large platform hung with rugs woven by the locals. A young man approaches us and asks if we’d like to drink some tea and look at their rugs. We’re anxious to begin our hike as it’s getting hotter by the minute, and besides, neither of us is in the market to buy anything now.
golden grasses and date palms
As we backtrack out of the gorge, we pass a number of date plantations built atop rock-walled terraces. We see some glowing grasses in front of the date palms, quite a picturesque spot, so we stop for photos.
Wadi An Nakhur
Wadi An Nakhur
Further on, we pass a beautiful mango tree in full bloom and we make another stop for photos.
blooming mango tree
the mango tree
textures in Oman’s wadis
Finally, we make it back to old Ghul village, and looking carefully along the wadi, we see a large peeling sign hidden behind some trees. Aha! We get out to inspect, and find it is the sign for the W6a trek. Nearby, we see the red, yellow and white flag sign painted on a rock, the mark for the trail. We park the car alongside the wadi and begin our trek at 10:40, later than we hoped to start.
Finally, the beginning of the W6a trail
We walk through the ruined village, which truly is disintegrating into the rocky hillside. Down below we see the small patchwork farms and the date plantations. As we head up and up, over rocky and gravelly terrain, we follow the signs up along the rock wall all the way to the ridge.
old Ghul village
ruins of old Ghul
view of the plantations through a door in the ruined village
following the path through old Ghul village
ruins
walls of a deteriorating home
Up here, there is little to no vegetation and the sun is beating down on us. Luckily there is a bit of a breeze. However, with the loose and jagged rocks underfoot and the steep climb, it is rough going. We are panting and sweating. We come to the ridge, which we walk along for a while, until we see the painted signs leading us down into a valley and up another higher ridge.
the view of the patchwork fields from above the old village of Ghul
fields of green
view of fields from old Ghul village
Once we start climbing the higher ridge, we find it quite strenuous. There are some areas of smooth rock, but most of the terrain is made of more loose jagged rock which moves under our feet as we walk. I am so exhausted I can hardly lift my legs to climb and I am gasping for breath. Either I’m really out of shape or this is a really arduous hike. Most likely, it’s both factors combined.
a section of An Nakhur Gorge
the view into Wadi Ghul from above old Ghul village
I comment to Mario that I have decided I’m not a big fan of Jebel Shams. I find Jebel Akhdar to be much more user-friendly. On Jebel Akhdar, there is a lot of green, and beautiful scenic views on relatively short (2-hour long), well-marked, and easy hikes. Photo opportunities abound on Jebel Akhdar. Once you’re in the heart of Jebel Shams, it’s just brown & gray and tough, rocky terrain. The photos are not especially interesting. For me, as I love photography, I find it’s a lot of work for too little return.
plant life on the W6a trail
rough terrain on the trail
plant life and my beat-up shoes
a flowering tree in the middle of rocky terrain
Mario and I decide to walk until 12:30, at which time we’ll turn around. Slowly, slowly, we make it to the ridge of An Nakhur Gorge by about 12:15, but by this time I’m wiped out and I have no idea how I will make it back down over that terrain.
Finally, the ridge of An Nakhur Gorge, Oman’s “Grand Canyon”
We admire the gorge from the top. We can see the meandering gray dirt track below, where we drove a couple of hours earlier. We wonder how much further Al Khitaym, the end of the trail, is, but we don’t really have the energy to find out. Al Khitaym is also the start of the Balcony Walk, which goes to the abandoned village of As Sab, deeper into An Nakhur Gorge (the balcony walk from al khitaym to the abandoned village of as sab. {jebel shams}). Maybe Mario has the energy to find out, but I certainly don’t!
the wall above the old village of Ghul
Finally, we head back down. I think the way back will be slower because we will have to step gingerly over the loose rock on a downhill slope, but most of the loose rock is lodged among other loose rock, so it doesn’t slide out from under our feet as readily as we think it will. At one point, I do slip and fall, hurting my right knee, the one with the partial knee replacement. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen on that knee since I had that surgery. I manage to get up and dust myself off, but I’m not happy about the fall.
coming back down to Ghul: the view
Finally, we make it down the bottom and back to the car. By this time it is 1:40, so we’ve been hiking for 3 hours. It feels like it was a 6 hour hike! By this time our bottled water is warm and of course the extra water we left in the car is warm as well. We head to Al Hamra, where we stop at a restaurant for a late lunch. We pour ourselves some cold water. In addition, I order a cold orange Fanta and a fresh banana juice. I am so thirsty and tired I can hardly move.
The heat has begun in Oman and we’re unlikely to have much reprieve from it in my remaining time here. I don’t think any more long hikes are in store for me in my last 110 days. Maybe some off-road drives or some short walks, but no more of these long hikes over rough mountainous terrain.
When I return home around 3:00 today, I take a shower, put on my pajamas and lie on the couch, exhausted. I promptly fall asleep and wake up close to 6:00. What a day!!
Thursday, February 28: After leaving Nakhal Fort, we head east along the Rustaq loop to drive into Wadi Bani Awf. We want to explore Little Snake Canyon, a less scary version of the real Snake Canyon which lies deeper in the wadi, nearly to Balad Sayt.
the opening to Little Snake Canyon
There’s a lot of road construction going on as we go into the wadi, and we’re happy to find large portions of the road are now paved. I haven’t been to this wadi since May or June, and a lot has been going on since then. It’s still quite a drive over unpaved roads, but at least it’s now mostly a smooth ride. We arrive at the parking area for Little Snake Canyon and head out to explore.
near the opening of Little Snake Canyon
Right at the entrance to the canyon, we find a little pool with fish, dragonflies and pretty butterflies, all surrounded by tall grasses.
a pretty little butterfly
red dragonfly
We wander into the canyon and I can’t help but comment that it seems a rough version of Petra. It’s not nearly as amazing as Petra, of course (what could be, after all?), but the canyon is incredibly narrow with steep high cliffs on either side, giving it that Petra look. I tell Mario that it’s too bad the Nabataeans didn’t come here to settle, otherwise some of the huge boulders strewn throughout the canyon might have been used to construct something as amazing as the Treasury or the Monastery, or even the Street of Facades.
going through the first hundred meters of the canyon
a little pool full of colorful rocks
As it is, the first hundred meters of the canyon are a flat bed of smooth rocks. However, the further back we go, we are blockaded by huge boulders strewn about. It looks prehistoric; I can’t help but imagine a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex picking up the huge boulders and, in a fit of anger, flinging them all over the canyon. The rocks are so cumbersome and in such awkwardly precarious positions, that it seems as if they are the aftermath of a nasty temper tantrum. Some violent upheaval.
deeper into the canyon: boulders everywhere
it looks as if these boulders were flung here by some angry being
We scramble over the boulders as far as we think is feasible, and then we decide to turn around. Later I read in Oman Off-Road that “the canyon opens up into a wide wadi and then, for the next kilometer or so, is easy hiking among boulders. Just before you hit the second canyon section, you’ll see a huge ‘scoop’ in the wall on the left. The canyon really narrows (to less than 5m wide) and eventually gives way to a long pool. Continuing further will require approximately 50m of refreshing swimming in a section of wafer-thin wadi.”
a little pool under some rocks
obstacles to tackle in our hike
“Easy hiking among boulders??” I don’t think so!! We have to slide along on our butts or climb up steep boulders to make any progress. Apparently, once again, we missed what we were supposed to see. I’ve done this too many times to count in Oman. I thought it was somewhat disappointing that we couldn’t go very far, but I guess we just didn’t try hard enough.
deeper into the canyon
Mario under a table-top boulder
close-ups of some of the stone in the canyon
And swimming in “wafer-thin wadi??” So much for that. We never found a “wafer-thin wadi,” much less any pool to swim in. 😦
Will there be a next time? I simply don’t know if I’ll have enough time to go back there again!!
a cairn left by a fellow explorer
On our way out, we notice a number of cairns that people have left to mark their territory. Mario builds one too, leaving a memento of our visit.
more cairns
Mario & his cairn
Mario’s cairn, up close and personal
the view on our way out of Wadi Bani Awf
We leave the Little Snake Canyon and drive to Rustaq, where we see the Rustaq Fort that is sadly closed for an extensive renovation. This fort is one of the biggest in Oman, with a huge central keep surrounded by low exterior walls topped by four towers. It is one of the most ancient in Oman, thought to have been built by the Julanda dynasty 50 years before the arrival of Islam. It was expanded in 670 AD and again in 1698; further towers were added by Sultan Faisal fin Turki in 1906 (The Rough Guide to Oman).
Rustaq Fort from the outside
Rustaq Fort
Rustaq Fort
Rustaq’s fame was based on its strategic position between the coast and the mountains, managing the exits of several wadis through which goods would have been transported from the mountains above. The town became a major center for local commerce. Some of the country’s finest metalworkers and silversmiths were based here. The town is also the source of some of Oman’s best halwa (a dessert) and honey. Beekeeping is a popular local occupation today (Rough Guide to Oman).
a little old mosque near the fort, still used today
We walk around the fort and take some photos from the outside. To me the most interesting things are the shadows of the date palms on the outer walls.
the exterior wall with date palms shadows
walls of Rustaq Fort
Rustaq Fort
Rustaq’s residents have long been known for their care of palm trees and their dates. They’ve used branches and leaves to build shelter and make baskets. Leather tanning is also one of the industries in Rustaq. People use leather to save water and food, and for making shoes. Other prominent industries produced textiles, agriculture, daggers, swords, guns, blacksmithing, carpentry and others (Wikipedia: Rustaq).
a date palm plantation near the fort
Finally, we go to the Rustaq hot springs. Ugly concrete bath houses, for men-only, straddle the hot spring. Someone tells me there is a women-only bathhouse, but I don’t see it. Apparently the water, with its hot temperature (45 Celsius) and its sulphur content, has curative properties. Mario spends some time in the bathhouse, where he finds some relief from the back pain he often suffers. While he’s in the bathhouse, I chat with Mario’s friend Mohammed, who lives right down the road from Rustaq Fort and has joined us in our wanders around the town.
Both of the hot springs I see today, in Nakhal and here in Rustaq, are a big disappointment because of their crowded and commercial aspects. Not only that, but they are downright ugly. Oh well, like Mario says, I’ve been there, done that. Check.
We head to a hill to take a picture of the mosque in Rustaq. I’ve admired this mosque in the past as I’ve driven through Rustaq, but sadly I never stopped to take a picture. The dome on the mosque, during those earlier drive-bys, was gorgeous, but today, sadly, there is green netting over the dome for renovations.
the Rustaq mosque
Finally, we end our day by going to Al Musanaah‘s Gulf Sand Hotel, where some new little chalets have been built that are only 15 rials! I stay in the 15 rial room, while Mario gets the 20 rial room which has a pleasant patio shaded by trees. We sit outside for a long while chatting and drinking wine until I decide it’s time for me to crash.
my lovely 15 rial “chalet” at the Gulf Sand Hotel
the outside of my little “chalet”
our favorite restaurant in al Musanaah for breakfast
Friday, March 1: In the morning, we take a drive back down the Rustaq loop to see the other famous castle in the area, Al Hazm, but we find it is closed for renovations. This must be renovation time in Oman! We try to take some decent pictures of the outside of the castle, but it is non-distinct and quite unimpressive.
the entrance to Al Hazm Castle
Al Hazm Castle
Finally, we return to Al Musanaah, where Mario and I split, since we’ve driven separate cars during this whole trip. He heads to Muscat to do some shopping and I head home to Nizwa. It turns out to be almost another 600 km road trip, but with an overnight stop built in. I guess I better use my car as much as I can in the next month or so, because soon I will have to put it up for sale. I’m certainly going to miss my GMC Terrain and all the adventures it’s taken me on in Oman. 😦
Saturday, February 16: Ailsa’s Travel Theme for this week is Mountains: She writes: It’s hard to beat the soaring majesty of mountains. It’s also apparently hard to define exactly what a mountain is. Countries around the globe use factors such as height, elevation, relief and volume in a vain attempt to define them. The Oxford English Dictionary settles for something suitably vague: “a natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable.” Merriam-Webster doesn’t do any better: “a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill.” Look up ‘hill’ in the same dictionary and you will find that it is described, helpfully, as “lower than a mountain.”
Some of the world’s tallest mountains are the Himalayas in Nepal. Here is a view of the Annapurna Range taken from Pokhara.
the Annapurna Range seen from Pokhara, Nepal
Machhapuchhre, or “Fish-Tailed” at sunrise
Here are mountains, with monasteries built on top, in Meteora, Greece.
Meteora, Greece
And finally, in Oman, where I have never seen snow-cover, are the mountains of Jebel Akhdar.
the view of Al Ayn and the gorge on top of Jebel Akhdar
Saturday, February 16: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is Kiss.There are a lot of ways to capture a kiss, between two people – lovers, family, friends; two animals, or even just the sending or receiving of a kiss.
In a new post specifically created for this challenge, share a picture which means KISS to you!